The Astronaut's Chair (NHB Modern Plays) by Rona Munro

Author:Rona Munro
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: epub, ebook, QuarkXPress
ISBN: 111-1-11-111111-1
Publisher: Nick Hern Books

ACT TWO

Hospital garden, 1964.

RENEE sits looking out over the garden. JACK sits nearby.

RENEE. What’s it like, being dead?

JACK. Renee, I’m not Jack Kennedy. Remember?

RENEE. Sure. So what’s it like, being dead?

JACK. I guess it’s not like anything. It’s not here.

RENEE. But everyone remembers, everyone knows who you were, you’re real history, an immortal memory.

JACK. Don’t see it does me much good.

RENEE. But you got to be proud.

JACK. I don’t think I’m anything any more.

RENEE. Did you feel it? When the bullet went in.

JACK. I suppose, for a second, then it was the end of the world.

RENEE. Shame. You were a good-looking guy, Jack.

JACK. Thank you, ma’am.

RENEE. I miss my husband.

He was very sick.

He was my dearest friend. He was the only man who never asked me for a thing except to let him love me. And then he died.

JACK. I got to get ready.

RENEE. You can’t get ready for the end of the world.

I didn’t vote for you, you know.

JACK. Didn’t expect you to.

JACK gets up as LARISSA enters. JACK and LARISSA talk quietly, JACK is showing LARISSA some notes.

RENEE. Secrets! Nothing but secrets!

LARISSA crosses to her.

LARISSA. Pretty sky.

RENEE. Yes.

LARISSA. It’s good you are outside. You are getting better.

RENEE. Oh, honey, I’m fighting fit, you can call my car for me in a moment. I’m going home.

Look at that sky. That is pretty. Is that sunrise or sunset?

LARISSA. It’s sunrise. You’ve made it into another day.

RENEE. Pretty.

LARISSA. You want to wait here?

RENEE. Yes.

It’s a beautiful morning.

I’ll be fine. I’m all better. Completely.

LARISSA (sceptical). Hmmm.

RENEE. What is it?

LARISSA. Who were you just talking to?

A beat. RENEE looks over at JACK.

RENEE (quiet). Jack Kennedy, but he wouldn’t want to talk to you, he’s dead, you know.

LARISSA. You don’t fool me. You waste time fooling yourself.

LARISSA exits.

Desert airbase, 1962.

KENNEDY is making a television broadcast. RENEE watches. JO enters during this speech. She is working on a small engine part.

KENNEDY. Good evening, my fellow citizens –

This Government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military build-up on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear-strike capability against the Western Hemisphere…

The 1930s taught us a clear lesson: aggressive conduct, if allowed to go unchecked and unchallenged, ultimately leads to war. This nation is opposed to war. We are also true to our word. Our unswerving objective, therefore, must be to prevent the use of these missiles against this or any other country, and to secure their withdrawal or elimination from the western hemisphere…

Our policy has been one of patience and restraint, as befits a peaceful and powerful nation which leads a worldwide alliance. We have been determined not to be diverted from our central concerns by mere irritants and fanatics. But now further action is required, and it is under way; and these actions may only be the beginning.

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